On Thursday the 2nd, 8th graders will have their first summative test. Students should study their vocab notes, notes on the documents behind the Declaration of Independence, notes on the Enlightenment contributions to the Declaration of Independence, notes on the Articles of Confederation & Continental Congress, and finally, the Preamble to the Constitution. To assist in the studying process, a copy of the notes can be found
here.
How does it all work together?
First of all, understand that the Declaration of Independence didn't "just happen"...
-It occurred because the British colonists came from a land that guaranteed certain rights to their people (through the Magna Carta & English Bill of Rights)
-It occurred because these documents gave the people the assumption that their government HAD to do certain things for them
-John Locke also influenced the Declaration of Independence because he had some specific arguments about natural rights each person had... life, liberty & PROPERTY (not pursuit of happiness...)
After the Declaration of Independence, the Americans had to figure out... WHAT NOW???
-First, they had to win a war.
-The Articles of Confederation successfully established a peace treaty with Britain, and created the United States of America as united states... but what did that mean?
-Confederation means loosely allied states... how united were they?
-The Articles of Confederation were fundamentally weak, probably because people were
still so afraid of a government becoming as unfair as the British government was.
- So...
The Continental Congress met in 1787 to try to fix the errors of the Articles of Confederation
-How would we create a government that was fair?
-How could states be fairly represented?
-How could we ensure that this great "project" of independence wouldn't fail?
-The US Constitution was written to establish a new system of government, and establish rules.
-The Preamble establishes those rules, and clarifies their reasons for writing the list of rules.
